I'm proud of being Canadian, but after yesterday's twitter conversation am starting to question wearing this red shirt.

cycleroadie

I follow Commander Hadfield on Twitter and saw the conversation before the Atlantic picked up on it, pretty cool.

Hart Sastrowardoyo

To that I asked whether another Canadian - Nicole DeBoer, who played Ezri Dax - was on Twitter. After all, it's the 20th anniversary of Star Trek: Deep Space 9.

And Hadfield's red shirt would be perfect for that era, since that's the command color.

Jay Chladek

Signs of life detected perhaps. But is it "intelligent" life?

I wouldn't worry about the red shirt. Unless some alien, machine or cloud creature attacks the station, he should be fine. If he goes to the surface of a planet though...

issman1

Seems that whenever foreign (as in non-US, non Russian) crewmembers take up residence on board ISS, there's more fervour/interest generated in those countries. Kuipers and Hoshide certainly did prior to Hadfield.

Nor have I read of anyone famous in America or Russia tweeting Ford, Marshburn, Tarelkin, Novitsky or Romanenko.

Robert Pearlman

Perhaps because in the U.S. (at least), when celebrities want to interact with the astronauts in space, they do so by voice through Mission Control. Sports teams, musicians, former Presidents, movie and TV stars have all visited Johnson Space Center and called up to the station crew.

Shatner recorded a wakeup call for the final crew of space shuttle Discovery.

But if it's tweets you want, Britney Spears chatted with Mars Curiosity over Twitter...

GoesTo11

With the National Hockey League labor impasse apparently about to be resolved, @Cmdr_Hadfield Tweeted his support for the Toronto Maple Leafs.

I couldn't resist replying that the ISS would likely host the Stanley Cup before the Air Canada Centre.

Murph

I believe Hadfield questioned wearing a red shirt because on Star Trek if anyone from the crew was ever killed, it was the crew member wearing the red shirt.

GoesTo11

Yes, "Red Shirt" and "Red Shirt Guy" are a joke among Star Trek fans that references the original '60s series, yet seems to have only really gained wide currency in the Internet age.

It's a nod to all the times the Away Team of Kirk, Spock, and "Bones" McCoy would prepare to beam down to the surface of the Papier-mache Planet of the Week, accompanied by an "Ensign So-and-so" you'd never seen before, in a red Starfleet uniform tunic. Guess which one likely wasn't coming back?

Robert Pearlman

Since Shatner and Hadfield first exchanged tweets, a venerable away team has chimed in — including Leonard Nimoy (Spock), George Takei (Sulu), Wil Wheaton (Wesley Crusher, yep we're spanning series) and (the real) Buzz Aldrin.

Hart Sastrowardoyo

Granted, Hadfield was Tweeting with Capt. Kirk. However, by the 24th century, a red shirt is the command uniform.

mikej

One can purchase a Star Trek-inspired T-shirt, red in color, which has EXPENDABLE (in the Star Trek font) emblazoned across its chest.

Robert Pearlman

NASA video release

Captain Kirk Chats Up Countryman on Station

Aboard the International Space Station, Expedition 34 Flight Engineer Chris Hadfield of the Canadian Space Agency (CSA) speaks with Canadian-born actor William Shatner, the original Captain Kirk on the "Star Trek" television series, as well as Twitter followers attending a tweetup at CSA Headquarters in St. Hubert, Quebec during an in-flight event Feb. 7.

Hadfield had previously exchanged tweets with Shatner after arriving on the orbital laboratory in late December. Hadfield will become the first Canadian commander of the complex in mid-March and is scheduled to return to Earth in mid-May on a Russian Soyuz spacecraft.

Jay Chladek

I would be curious if NASA is going to send up a gold shirt for Hadfield to wear when he becomes the commanding officer of the ISS.

Robert Pearlman

You mean if the Canadian Space Agency will send up... Hadfield is not a NASA astronaut.

p51

quote:Originally posted by Hart Sastrowardoyo:And Hadfield's red shirt would be perfect for that era, since that's the command color.

quote:Originally posted by Hart Sastrowardoyo:However, by the 24th century, a red shirt is the command uniform.

It's actually not. On the original series, the red shirts were only security (hence the lone ensign that never made it back from the surface) and engineering...

YELLOW was always the command color.

Sheesh, I'm not really that big a Trek fan and I knew that without having to look it up.

Robert Pearlman

quote:Originally posted by p51:YELLOW was always the command color.

Actually, Hart is correct — because his comments were in connection with it being the 20th anniversary of Deep Space Nine. Beyond the Original Series, the colors changed. Captain Sisko wore red.

Gonzo

Actually, you guys are all correct. You have to remember that the Star Trek timeline spanned several centuries (roughly 2156 to 2460 or so. On OUR calendar...).

As such, a lot of the shirt colors changed. And actually, in the TOS, command was not yellow/gold, it was light green. Due to the way color was filmed/processed then, it appeared yellow/gold on the old TV screens, when in fact it was actually light green.

But the point is, to discuss the colors and their meaning, you have to put it in context of the timeline. There were even changes of colors within a single genre. Kirk himself from TOS to the movies changed colors if you will recall. He went from the green/yellow/gold color in TOS to white and even red in later movies.

Then finally in the last of the various series, TNG, command AND engineering were red, medical went from blue in prior series to surgical green back to blue and science from the original blue (TOS) to blue/grey and back to blue, again the same as medical.

Geez, you'd think that space geeks would know these things...

And the comment about the "red shirt guy not coming back" is correct. It has always referred (humorously) to the TOS when the red shirt guy was, let's just say, expendable...

Hart Sastrowardoyo

And if you want to get really geeky, the ST:TWOK uniforms had white shirts underneath the jackets for command personnel. McCoy, the doctor, wore green, and cadets and trainees red and black.

GoesTo11

Not (necessarily) Star Trek-related, but if you use Twitter and aren't following @Cmdr_Hadfield, I highly recommend doing so. He's quite active and has been "Tweeting" a lot of impressive and unique photos taken from the Station.